1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a video camera. More specifically, the present invention relates to a compact video camera with an electronic picture stabilizer, which is utilized as a camcorder, for example.
2. Description of the Related Art
One example of a method for detecting an unintentional motion component of an image sensing device is disclosed in, for example, the Twentieth Image Engineering Conference in 1989 by Matsushita Electric Industrial Corporation. In this prior art method, by utilizing a motion vector obtained by a representative point matching method disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid open No. 61(1986)-201581 [H04N 7/137], the motion component of the image sensing device is detected according to image information. In this prior art, an electronic picture stabilization is performed on the basis of a whole motion vector obtained from the image information.
More specifically, in this prior art, four detection areas are arranged in an image field, and four portion motion vectors are obtained from the image field. Then, the whole motion vector is evaluated by averaging the portion motion vectors of the four detection areas, or the whole motion vector is evaluated by averaging portion motion vectors of two portion motion vectors having intermediate values of the four portion motion vectors, whereby the electronic picture stabilizer is performed on the base of the whole motion vector thus evaluated.
However, in such a method, in a case where an object has passed through a detection area, for example, when there is a detection area in which a portion motion vector which is not caused by the unintentional motion of the camera is detected, the whole motion vector is affected by this detection area, and therefore, the motion of the camera is not accurately detected, and thus, electronic picture stabilization cannot be performed with precision.